Life

Since blogging is new to me I decided to write a synopsis of our life with Analayne up until now. I was thinking it would be nice to have this type of a "date-line" all in one place. I guess this entry is more for me but for those of you interested... its for you too!

July and August 2005: If I could sum the month of July 2005 up with just 5 words, I would choose amazement, bonded, thankful, happy and busy. We were amazed at how beautiful our daughter was to us. We were amazed that God could and did bless us with her. We were bonded. Bonding happened immediately for me. One look at her and I was changed (I guess that is how God intends for it to occur). However, each day we bonded more and each day I felt more secure with my mothering. We were thankful that we had a healthy and happy baby (well...happy when she was fed and being held). We were thankful that we finally had our baby girl to hold. We were happy. Despite being tired--emotionally, physically and mentally happiness was still felt. Lastly, we were busy. Never a dull moment and almost two years later we still rarely have a dull moment! When Analayne was born she had a very low resting heart rate that was worrisome to her pediatrician and to the cardiologists at Vanderbilt. I can remember being so scared. She looked good (she was pink, breathing well, crying well, and did not seem to be "working to breathe). We had to do several EKG's which ending up being fine and the doctors concluded the low resting heart rate was from a long delivery (yes, it was very long...). One thing about Analayne's infancy was that she was ALWAYS very alert and responsive. Even just a few hours after being born you could walk into the newborn nursery and there she would be lying in her bed with her eyes wide open. She did that all the time! In fact, she very rarely slept during daylight hours until she was 2 weeks away from turning one year old. That's right folks, I had a newborn that would sleep through the night but did not close her eyes the entire day which obviously meant that we had very long days together! Looking back on that characteristic of Analayne I am not surprised at all by her lack of daytime napping. She still has strange sleep issues that we have learned to deal with and/or modify.

September/October 2005: You smiled for the first time on Sept 6th. You repeat me when I say, "ohhhh." You laugh out loud on October 3rd. You grasp and hold an object for a long period of time on October 19th.

November/December 2005: You can "talk" really loud now (you are still really loud)--November 17th . You roll over for the first time on December 13th. You love to hold your little lambert lamb.

January/February 2006: You love your exersaucer, You took your first airplane ride on Feb 8th. You can now sit up, play with toys in the bathtub, say, "dadadada," eat some baby food.

March/April 2006: You are trying to crawl, you love music. You waved for the first time on April 16th. We went to the beach in Tx.

May/June 2006: You crawl for the first time on May 23rd, You love to crinkle paper in your hand, Your favorite book is Meet Little Tex, Your favorite song is "itsy bitsy spider" You can clap your hands.

July August 2006: You can eat table food, We had a luau birthday party for you. You love to eat fruit, You can say "eyes." You love the books, Splish-Splash and Cookies Week. You enjoy riding in your wagon.

September/October 2006: You can say the words, bird, cat, fly, outside, Russ, da da, poppa, GiGi) and you can point to specific people on pictures. You can also climb off our bed onto the floor. You walked for the first time today without help (October 12th).
November/December 2006: You love to open cabinets!

January/Feb 2007: You say, mama, bus, show, baby, sky, bird, cat, hi, bye, that, fish, socks, duck, whoops, wee, pee-pee. You can make some animal sounds, you love to hold the phone and pretend, you can spin in a circle, you love to be chased, you like to put your head on the floor, you know what toilet paper is for, you love to unload the dishwasher with me, you love to go to your class at church, you say the word show when you want to watch baby einstein

March/April 2007: You say "ut-oh" You say "amen" after the prayer, you love the horses, and say the word "jo-jo" when you want to watch Jo Jo's circus on the computer. You brought your first "scribble" picture home from church (it was a horse pictured with a few colored lines on it). You play with your sand table and love taking wagon rides, you love to go to the zoo.

May 2007: You can dance to "ring around the rosie" like a pro!

Well, in a nut-shell that is all I seem to have recorded on paper. I feel like I have left out SO MUCH. I want to really keep up with the phrases she says and the new things she does. Despite feeling busy almost all the time, its not just "being busy." I want my life to be filled with meaningful events not with trivial business. I try hard not to fill our days with silly things like watching television. Each day should be spent doing things together. I figure when she older she won't remember the day she watched the wiggles but she will remember that we went to the beach together, or that we went to the petting zoo. We live our busy lives but in all actuality we are not just "living life" We are truly experiencing life---its so much more fun that way. From now on expect greater detail. I am just getting going!